Ron Taylor obituary
In the 70s he was a member of the Anti-Nazi League and a founder member of the Hebden Bridge Asbestos Action Group in West Yorkshire along with his first wife, Renata. In 1979 he helped set up the alternative newspaper the Calder Valley Press. During the miners' strike Ron formed a local support group and organised fundraising gigs including one featuring the folk musician and comic Mike Harding.
Ron had moved to Hebden Bridge in 1971, having graduated in social policy from the University of Leeds. He then worked for Rochdale social services and in 1980 joined Calderdale College in Halifax, teaching social work and later becoming a popular counsellor in student services. Between 2000 and 2007 he was a project worker for the NCH (now Action for Children), during which time he walked the Great Wall of China to raise money for the charity.
After Ron's retirement in 2007, he and I started visiting Palestine and quickly became involved with Taayush, a grassroots non-violent Jewish/Arab movement to promote peace and co-existence. We made regular visits to the West Bank, working with villagers and subsistence farmers in the south Hebron hills. Ron would send postcards back to Yorkshire that were featured in the local community website, Hebweb. He presented many talks and screenings about the plight of Palestinians and their daily struggles. Ron and I spent long days with the charity Care4Calais distributing essentials to refugees, and Ron also supported refugees locally.
Born in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, he was the son of Margaret (nee Ellis) and Cyril Taylor. Cyril was a pharmaceutical rep who had once served Haile Selassie at Boots the chemist during the Ethiopian emperor's exile in Bath; Margaret was a homemaker.
As a pupil at Queen Elizabeth grammar in Wakefield, Ron was able to play only rugby but, on leaving school, he was able to follow his passion for football. He was a lifelong supporter of Manchester City. In 1996, Ron and a group of friends formed a local five-a-side football club called the Old Gits, and he played his last game of seven-a-side at the age of 75. The team now call it the Ron Taylor FC in his honour.
Ron's marriage to Renata (nee Dempsey) ended in divorce. He and I married in 2000. He is survived by me, his daughter Kerry from his first marriage, my children, Sandra, Jürgen and Zoë, and six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
2 minutes ago
- BBC News
Rail travel
Copyright 2025 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.
BBC News
2 minutes ago
- BBC News
Hampshire police answer 999 calls faster after concerns raised
Emergency 999 calls are being answered faster, thanks to "transformational" changes at a police force, a report has 2024/25, 999 calls to Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary were answered within three seconds on average, down from 11 seconds in 2023/24, according to the annual police and crime commissioner (PCC) comes after a police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (Peel) report raised concerns that the force did not answer calls "in a timely way".HM Inspectorate of Constabularies and Fire & Rescue Services said the force did not always act as quickly as it should but he was "pleased" it was being addressed with an increase in call handlers. The PCC report showed that in 2024/25, 93.21% of 999 calls were answered - a 13% increase from the previous wait time for people calling 101 also dropped, from an average of nearly 10 minutes and 24 seconds in 2023/24 to two minutes and 50 seconds in 2024/ said the figures represented a "transformational improvement", adding: "The number of abandoned calls has dropped by two thirds, significantly improving public access and confidence."Improving access to policing was a priority for the police and crime commissioner, said the added: "The PCC commended the constabulary's constructive and proactive response to challenge and scrutiny."These improvements show a real shift in performance culture and a strong commitment to putting the public first in every contact." You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
UK's first female archbishop tells of how she hid her sexuality for decades
The new archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev Cherry Vann, has told of how she kept her sexuality secret for decades as part of her struggle to be accepted as a female minister in the Anglican communion. Speaking to the Guardian on Thursday, the day after her appointment, Vann, 66, said that without the strong belief that God had called her to the priesthood she 'would not have survived' her journey through the ranks of the church. Vann became one of the first female priests to be ordained in England in 1994. Now, as the UK's first female and first openly gay archbishop, and the first openly lesbian and partnered bishop to serve as a primate within the Anglican communion, she has well and truly broken the stained glass ceiling. 'It happens that I've lived in a time that's meant that I'm a trailblazer, but I'm not a campaigner,' the Leicestershire-born archbishop said during an interview at the Church in Wales's offices in central Cardiff. 'I'm not somebody to be out there all the time but I do seek to be true to what I think God's asking of me.' Working in the Church in Wales since 2020 has been very different from the many years Vann spent at the Church of England, she said, as clergy are permitted to be in same-sex civil partnerships. In the Anglican church in England, same-sex relationships are technically allowed, but gay clergy are expected to remain celibate. Upon becoming bishop of Monmouth five years ago, Vann publicly disclosed her civil partnership with Wendy Diamond, her partner of 30 years, for the first time. 'Other people in England were braver than I was and made their sexuality clear. A lot of them suffered the consequences of that, certainly when going forward for ordination,' Vann said. 'For years we kept our relationship secret because I worried about waking up and finding myself outed on the front page of a newspaper. Now, Wendy joins me everywhere, and when I take services, it's just normal. But in England she had to stay upstairs if I had a meeting in the house.' Being a woman in the church had been difficult enough, she added. 'You can hide your sexuality, up to a point, but you can't hide being a woman. There was a lot of nastiness; the men were angry, they felt they had been betrayed.' Vann said in the 1990s, she and a handful of other female priests began meeting for prayer and conversation with male colleagues opposed to their ordination. 'It was awful, it was really difficult for all of us, but we stuck at it,' she said. Over time, the hostility dissipated. 'This is what I'm hoping around the sexuality issue too – modelling that we can vehemently disagree about something, but we can still love one another in Christ and recognise one another as children of God.' Vann will be enthroned in red and gold at her home cathedral in Newport this autumn in what many in the church hope will mark a definitive end to a tumultuous period. Andy John, the former archbishop, announced in June he was standing down with immediate effect after an alcohol-fuelled financial, bullying and sexual misconduct scandal at Bangor Cathedral. John was not accused of wrongdoing, but calls for his resignation gathered pace after summaries of two reports were published and six 'serious incident reports' were sent to the Charity Commission earlier this year. Two members of the cathedral's college of priests have called for an independent inquiry into the events at Bangor, but Vann downplayed the demands, telling the Guardian that she believed the Wales-wide 'cultural audit' announced by the church's representative body in the wake of John's resignation would be sufficient to 'hold people accountable'. The new archbishop's top priority is 'healing and reconciliation', she said. 'There's a lot of work already going on in the background, we haven't been standing still … We must work to build trust with those who have been hurt and angered by what has gone on.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion According to Tim Wyatt, a journalist focusing on the Anglican church, Vann's arrival in Wales in 2020 as bishop of Monmouth was also part of a clean-up job after factional fighting over the conduct of her predecessor, Richard Pain. Vann is also somewhat of an outsider to Wales, symbolising a clean break with the John era and the Bangor scandal. The archbishop grew up in a religious family in Whetstone in Leicestershire, following in her church organist father's footsteps by studying at the Royal College of Music and then the Royal Schools of Music, where she trained as a teacher. She entered an Anglican theological college in 1986 to prepare for ordination and then worked in the Manchester diocese, becoming a priest in 1994 and archdeacon of Rochdale in 2008. Gender and sexuality are still highly divisive issues in the Anglican communion. Even in her new role as the first female and first openly gay archbishop in the UK, Vann was cautious on the topic of gay marriage. 'I don't personally feel the need to get married in church; Wendy and I have been together for 30 years, we've made our vows, and we are committed to each other. 'Gay marriage in church is inevitable, I think: the question is when. There are people who are very opposed, and as leader, I have to honour their position, which is theologically grounded. It isn't my job to push something through that would alienate a good proportion of clergy.' Vann's appointment has caused outrage in some circles, with one prominent conservative group calling it 'tragic'. In response, the Church in Wales has highlighted the warm welcome her appointment has received from dozens of other denominations and churches. For her part, Vann said she was not worried about whether her election would be perceived as tokenistic. 'It's a two-thirds majority vote in the electoral college, the bar is high,' she said. 'I don't think any of those people voted for me primarily because I'm a woman or I'm a gay person. They voted for me because they recognise I've got the skills to lead the Church in Wales at this particular time.'
